Houmous (3 ways)

I found a really simple recipe for Houmous in Olive Magazine's 101 Global Dishes.  The first time I tried it I found I needed to add a little more water to get the consistency I wanted and after tasting felt there was too much tahini so last week I tried again and altered the proportions slightly.  To add a bit more interest I decided to add some more flavours to create 3 different kinds of Houmous.

So we ended up with:

Houmous, Plain and Simple
Houmous with Olives
Houmous with Roasted Red Pepper and Chilli

Here is what you will need:

Chickpeas (1 x 400g tin, drained)
Light Tahini Paste (2 tbsp)
Garlic (tsp crushed)
Olive Oil 3 tbsp
Ground Cumin 1 tsp
Lemon 1 juiced
4 tbsp Water
Red Pepper 1/2 medium
Medium Red Chilli (deseeded and halved)
A dozen black olives such as Hojiblanca (fresh from the deli)

First, make the basic homous to which the other ingredients will be added to make the interesting alternatives.

Add the chickpeas, garlic, tahini, olive oil, water, lemon juice to a food processor and season well.  Blitz for a minute or 2 depending on what consistency you want - add more water and blitz for longer to achieve a very smooth texture. 

Divide into 3 bowls - cut an olive in half to garnish and pop on top of one dish and that is your plain and simple one finished.  Allow to chill for at least an hour.






For the others it might be best to use a mini chopper as there will only be a small amount to blend through with the other ingredients. 

Take a handful of black olives (around a dozen halved) and add to the mini chopper with one of the houmous portions and again blitz for a minute.  Olive Houmous done.

For the final one - drizzle a red pepper and medium chilli with olive oil and roast in the oven at 200 degrees for about 20 minutes till softened and beginning to blacken.  Then add this to the final portion of houmous and blitz in the mini chopper.  This is wonderful and sweet with heat - I will make this again for sure.




Serve with toasted pitta, carrots, peppers and anything else you fancy dipping.  makes a lovely sociable supper.